The present invention relates to a clutch assembly useful for driving the V-belt of a power transmission assembly found in snowmobiles, all terrain vehicles (ATV) and motorbikes. Examples of such clutch assemblies are shown in Lundberg U.S. Pat. No. 4,095,479, issued Jun. 20, 1978, and prior art cited therein.
In V-belt drive clutch assemblies presently known, the clutch assembly after running for a few minutes gets very hot. This leads to deterioration of the clutch components, surrounding elements and presents a danger of burning to the user or mechanic. Another disadvantage of presently known clutches is the lack of efficiency in the transmission of power relative to the rate of speed of the vehicle's engine. A further disadvantage of presently known V-belt drive clutches is that the clutches are very complex to manufacture and very difficult and expensive to service. The present invention overcomes the aforementioned and other disadvantages of the prior art V-belt clutch assemblies.